Walking in the Redwood Forest

My mom has been in San Francisco for about a month now. Her visit has been wonderful. I love the fact that I’ve been able to show her my life here in San Francisco. I also love having her around to run errands, walk around, discover new places, and to hang out at home. She leaves in two days and I already know I’m going to miss her a lot. The apartment is going to feel quite empty when she leaves on Thursday.

I’ve been trying to make her time in the city be special. Risking driving her crazy, I’ve tried to show her as much of San Francisco as possible. During her month with me, she has seen a lot of what the city has to offer and, even though she thinks she is running out of things to do and see for her next visit, she has only scratched the surface. There is so much to see in this city that despite Joe and my best efforts to see something new every week, we still have an incredibly long list in front of us.

When planning my mom’s visit, I knew I wanted to take her to see Redwood trees in Muir Woods, so we headed there a week or so ago.

The drive to the forest was gorgeous. We left early in the morning to avoid the crowds that usually suffocate the path inside the National Monument. On our way there, we drove by the place where Joe and I took the photo that we used in our Save the Date cards after our engagement. Such a wonderful place to always remember!

My mom is not a big hiker, so we kept our walk in Muir Woods to the short loop that most people do. When we were there for the first time, over 5 years ago, we hiked well off that loop and into the forest, leaving the crowds behind and getting the woods to ourselves. We hiked for hours and got to our car right after the sun set. It was a magical hike and, even though this time we stayed in the more popular and transited area, the giant trees still worked their magic and made the walk very special.

It was cold in the forest. The sun was just coming out from behind the trees and we could see the rays peaking from behind the thick tree trunks. I love seeing the morning light. Each ray of sun seemed to awaken something new in the forest. It was lovely. My mom really loved it too!

Even though I took quite a few photos, they were all unique to me. The light in each was different, the smell blowing from the trees was different, the way the branches moved was different too.

Some of my favorite photos are the ones in which I captured the creek that runs through the forest. Water and tall trees make for such a zen combo!

Oh the trees! Looking up those enormous trees was such a beautiful thing. The canopies are so far away, so tall, so out of reach. The big trees, this beautiful giants, they sure give you perspective in life. The greenery, the light, the forest floors, covered only by ferns, all that beauty in just one place!

After a couple of hours walking around the woods, we headed back to the car and continued with our touristic day with my mom. Our next stop was Sausalito, a town across the Bay from San Francisco.

Sausalito is such a fun town and, on a very clear day like the that one, you can enjoy gorgeous views of the city. We sat at a café by the water, drank a cappuccino and watched the boats go by, the ferries arrive, and the fog crawl in from underneath the Golden Gate Bridge into the bay, slightly covering some buildings in the city.

Having walked most of the waterfront in Sausalito and having poked into antique stores and art galleries, we started our drive back to the city. After all, we had been gone for about 5 hours and we had to get back to our puppy!

On our way back, we stopped at an overlook on the Marin Headlands that offers a different view of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge, which was as red as I’ve ever seen it! What a fun bridge, what a fun view, what a fun city!

 

As we drove back to our place, we were all happy with the wonderful day we had had. My mom really liked what she saw that day and I was happy to see her happy too. Yes, I’m definitely going to miss her when she leaves.

I hope you enjoyed my photos from this week. For more nature photos, visit my Etsy page at http://www.etsy.com/shop/WorldPhotosByPaola.